F
Flopfoot
Guest
This is to try to answer the question: Does it make it easier for people to get into heaven when missionaries come and convert their culture to Christianity? Or does God judge people relative to the standards of their culture?
When it comes to purgatory, God is getting vengeance against the evil we commit. In a sense he is undoing the temporal damage that we have done on earth. This means it has to be based on the absolute size of the evil done, even if the people who grow up in an evil culture don’t realise they’re doing evil.
Or if you prefer to think of purgatory as rehabilitation, it makes sense that a person who grew up in an evil culture is going to need more rehabilitating than a person who grew up in a good culture. Remember, nothing imperfect can enter heaven. Having the missionaries around definitely helps from this angle!
But hell is not a place of temporal punishment like purgatory. The size of the evil that humans can commit is finite, so God can get always get vengeance on people with a finite amount of time in purgatory. Instead hell is for people who will to not spend eternity with God. To go there you have to really hate God and everything that is good, and love evil.
Would a person who constantly does evil grow to love evil? They say that practice makes perfect. But in an evil culture, people do “evil for the sake of good” rather than “evil for the sake of evil”, so their practice is not with the goal of growing to love evil. It might even be that a person who grows up around evil would be more likely to hate evil because they can see the damage it does.
On the flip side, a person who grows up in a good culture can not be so sheltered that they never know enough about evil to be able to love it. You’re always going to witness petty envy at the least. Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that’s what he got. There are some who speculate that there are even priests and bishops in hell (though why would you work for someone you hate?)
Does this mean the missionary efforts are useless from this angle? Well, maybe they can at least help the people who love good. In an evil culture, what can you do to fortify your love of good so that you won’t fall away? The only real tool you have is practicing charity towards others. As good as that tool is, missionaries bring extra tools like prayers, masses, theology, and the witness of the saints that can help people resist the lure of evil.
When it comes to purgatory, God is getting vengeance against the evil we commit. In a sense he is undoing the temporal damage that we have done on earth. This means it has to be based on the absolute size of the evil done, even if the people who grow up in an evil culture don’t realise they’re doing evil.
Or if you prefer to think of purgatory as rehabilitation, it makes sense that a person who grew up in an evil culture is going to need more rehabilitating than a person who grew up in a good culture. Remember, nothing imperfect can enter heaven. Having the missionaries around definitely helps from this angle!
But hell is not a place of temporal punishment like purgatory. The size of the evil that humans can commit is finite, so God can get always get vengeance on people with a finite amount of time in purgatory. Instead hell is for people who will to not spend eternity with God. To go there you have to really hate God and everything that is good, and love evil.
Would a person who constantly does evil grow to love evil? They say that practice makes perfect. But in an evil culture, people do “evil for the sake of good” rather than “evil for the sake of evil”, so their practice is not with the goal of growing to love evil. It might even be that a person who grows up around evil would be more likely to hate evil because they can see the damage it does.
On the flip side, a person who grows up in a good culture can not be so sheltered that they never know enough about evil to be able to love it. You’re always going to witness petty envy at the least. Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that’s what he got. There are some who speculate that there are even priests and bishops in hell (though why would you work for someone you hate?)
Does this mean the missionary efforts are useless from this angle? Well, maybe they can at least help the people who love good. In an evil culture, what can you do to fortify your love of good so that you won’t fall away? The only real tool you have is practicing charity towards others. As good as that tool is, missionaries bring extra tools like prayers, masses, theology, and the witness of the saints that can help people resist the lure of evil.